Be Organized – Divorces often involve the exchange of stacks of
bank statements, credit card statements, school records and the like. When your attorney receives a request for
these documents from the other attorney, he will have to review them first and
make sure that nothing is missing and that nothing that shouldn't be included
has been accidentally provided. If your
documents are complete, properly categorized and in chronological order, you
can save your attorney hours of work.
Be Responsive – It’s important for your attorney to respond quickly
to your inquiries and questions; the same is true for the client. Your attorney has certain deadlines to meet
in your case and procedures that must be followed. If you are unresponsive – such as not
providing requested documents by the deadline your attorney gives to you – you
can cost yourself thousands of dollars in unnecessary hearings set by the other
side to compel your cooperation.
Don’t Play Games with the Other Party – If you play games with your
spouse, you will cost yourself more money.
For example, if you send hateful or abusive emails, your attorney will
probably hear from the other side, even if their client was guilty of it
too. That means both attorneys are
billing at their hourly rate and depleting community resources all because the
clients were not mature enough to be civil with one another. There are other common examples: cancelling
credit cards, toll tags or utilities without telling the other party will result
in an angry phone call or even a hearing.
When the attorneys are occupied arguing about issues like these, they
are not able to work on the larger matters necessary to finish your case, and
all the while it’s costing you money.
Not Everything Will Be Fair – Sometimes the attorney’s fees aren’t
worth making sure that everything in your divorce is fair, particularly when
the issue is relatively minor. For
example, if your spouse refuses to pay an expense that you think should be
theirs, ask yourself whether you will pay your attorney even more to fight
about it than if you simply covered the expense yourself; it is often better to
let minor issues go if it means that you will save even more in attorney’s
fees.
Divorces can be time-consuming
and costly. The
Law Office of Jay D. Smith has the experience to guide you
through the legal system to save you time and money.
Contact us by calling
512-340-0002 to see how we can help you with your case.”